Horror stories from the ivory tower
Vignettes 1-25-05
By Freddie A. Bowles,
The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville
A new transfer student, a close relative to a fellow Ph.D candidate, visited the university on the mountain yesterday. She called on us at the GA (Graduate Assistant) office and offered two vignettes from her first day of classes.
Vignette One
In her advanced composition class, she overheard this brief exchange between two seatmates. One discreetly asked if the other had a piece of chewing gum. The other simply replied, "Yes," and handed over the gum. The instructor proceeded to berate the two students for their lack of attention and ordered them to leave the class. Overreaction? Yes. Aggressive and extreme behavior on the instructor's part? Also a yes. How can our students learn to handle delicate, uncomfortable situations if their elders and leaders (members of the professorial class) react so immoderately?
Vignette Two
Transfer student must take a drama class. The instructor requires that her students read 22 plays and warns them that if they are not prepared to discuss each play intelligently, they will be dropped immediately. No negotiation.
I am appalled that some of my peers, colleagues and betters (and not solely at this university, but at my previous place of employment as well) conduct their classrooms as if they were the sole arbiter and exclusive owner of information. They allow no quarter for misstep within their draconian domain. Has the kicking shoe ever been on the other foot? Do not such rigid standards hamper the learning environment? Would a professor akin to the types described in our vignettes even care?
Break a rule, you are out. Commit a minor faux pas, begone. Does life work that way? Should a classroom instructor enforce standards that do not reflect the culture that permits the classroom to exist?
Totalitarianism, or democracy?
Ah, but we remind ourselves that the ivory tower rises high above the campus veld to promote creativity and innovative ideas. We remind ourselves. The two vignettes shared by our visitor exemplify behaviors associated with a totalitarian regime, not a democracy. I maintain that effective education is best raised on the traditional liberal principles of egalitarian democracy.
I began as a liberal arts major, English and Foreign Languages, and continued to teach in that arena until I returned to school as a fellow in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction housed in the College of Education and Health Professions. It is an innovative field whose practitioners continually explore ways to better educate all students. It is grounded in theories of learning and instruction, cognitive development, and developmental psychology. As teachers — and as teachers of teachers — we seek to understand how we learn. We search for better ways to clarify the means of achieving that goal.
When I listen to stories from students about the overbearing strictures they must endure in other disciplines, I cringe because I realize that they are being abused — and have willingly paid at high price to the tuition purser for that abuse. It is unfair, undemocratic, and anti-epistemological.
Christening a portfolio with a postcard
Portfolios 1-20-05
By Freddie A. Bowles,
The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville
The first class of the new semester took place at a small rural Arkansas high school, not at the university as would be supposed. I was invited to teach portfolio writing by Novice Teacher to a group of eleventh grades who are academically at risk. Novice teacher was pondering the best way to engage these learners, so I offered my experience using portfolios for the ESL (English as a Second Language) writing classes I had taught in the Intensive English Program at the University of Central Arkansas. He conferred with the head of the English Department at his school, and she agreed that it would be a worthwhile endeavor.
Objectives, frameworks
I began to prepare for the lesson by opening dozens of boxes looking for a couple of example portfolios I had saved and for an opening writing activity using postcards. Of course, after hours of searching, I found the activity in the most accessible, last (and least) possible place — conveniently hiding in my file cabinet! After gathering materials, I looked at the Arkansas Department of Education website to scan the Frameworks for English at the 11th grade so that my objectives would match those required by the state.
I established the goal and objectives of the lesson as they related to the Frameworks, created my activities to target the goals, and then went shopping for binders and postcards.
Engaged, enthusiastic time travelers
I packed up "Godzilla" (our Honda Element), and with canine guests as traveling companions, I headed south for my first lesson. I arrived in time to catch the second half of a block class in World History and was introduced to an engaged and enthusiastic group who were creating stories of being transported back to the glory days of Rome.
When the bell rang, the small group of eleventh graders arrived — five females and four males, two of whom were English Language Learners. They were just as curious as I was excited. I began with an overview of why portfolio writing was effective, fun, and personal. I had brought two examples from former students to show them. As they looked at the portfolios, we discussed basic terminology of writing — audience, purpose, style, editing, revising and the writing process itself. I asked for examples of what types of writing they already knew how to do and why they wrote them. I confirmed to them that they were already writers, but to be better writers they had to write more.
At this point, we took the time to pick out binders. I had chosen several colors — traditional and neon. Novice teacher had stickers and blank paper for them, so for several minutes, they organized and decorated their portfolio binders.
Step-by-step to the post office
Their first writing activity was to imagine that they were on vacation somewhere in Arkansas and were sending a postcard greeting to their classmate. We reviewed basic spelling, punctuation, capitalization and formatting for addressing a postcard and went over the basic parts of an informal greeting for the content. However, before they were given the actual postcard, I had them do a "mock-up" of their address. They exchanged the example for their partner to check while I monitored their efforts. Once we had the addresses completed, they wrote the rough draft of their greeting. Novice Teacher and I checked the drafts for mechanics and made other suggestions related to content. Finally, I let them choose their postcards from a group of Arkansas-themed scenes. The last step was to transfer the draft of the greeting to the postcard. Before the bell rang again, I collected the postcards to bring to my place of residence and mail from here to see how long it would be before the postcards arrived at their homes.
The results of this activity were immediate and effective. Students were able to correctly compose and format the address; they were able to distinguish a formal salutation and closing from an informal salutation and closing; and they were able to recognize the informal style used for writing to their peers. By the end of the following week, students were receiving postcards about shopping at the mall, having a sauna and massage, or asking for cab money to rescue one from boredom!
Novice teacher has also reported that the portfolios continue to be successful. He has added journal writing and poetry to complement their first task of imaginary writing.
Relentless, ubiquitous "school days"
Confinement 12-27-04
By Freddie A. Bowles,
The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville
The third day of Christmas arrives in the restive, expansive northwest corner of Arkansas. For those of us in the teaching profession, we enter the second week of respite from an intensive semester of instruction, study, preparation, assessment, and academic juggling. The demands of administration and classroom management can be intense and fierce.
Boundaries
Already we speak of the next semester and begin planning our syllabi and activities for the new semester. Teaching is relentless and ubiquitous. It seeps into your psyche and permeates each hour. The boundaries between off-time and class time become nonexistent. Even shopping becomes class related. You look for realia to decorate your room; ponder a new fashion for appropriateness and practicality; books, CDs, and video must pass muster for multi-use (class and home) before you part with your money; every holiday finds you stocking up on candy and treats for your students; vacations become content-oriented or conference-related. You willingly plan to return to school for more training, paid out of your own pocket on your own free time.
The profession of teaching is misunderstood and undervalued by the non-teaching masses. If you listen closely to those "others" in your circle of family and friends, most are happy and relieved to be away from "schooldays." You couldn't pay them to go back to school.
Fondness?
Ah, there's the crux. Why do a few of us have fond memories of scholastic confinement and continue to participate in this compulsory social requirement, whereas the majority of our acquaintances prefer to keep their distance from the ivory tower and its related sanctuaries?
Notice the code words? Do they provoke you to wander with me in the drifty direction of this particular missive? Let's stress again the words "confinement" and "compulsory." Reflect on your particular experiences and assess those long-ago times when you were confined under compulsion to a particular place for a set period of time. What might we discern in contemplation of the Age of Confinement … childhood to puberty, and eventually to the supposed freedom we attain in our passage into adulthood. Schooldays seem less appealing when couched in these terms, n'est pas?
Goals
If, as a society, we insist on releasing our most precious charges to compulsory confinement for twelve or more years, then we, as a society, must persistently evaluate the worth of this system in meeting the goals of the citizenry. This begs the question: What are those goals? One question leads to another, then another: Who creates the goals? Who evaluates them? Are the goals being met?
What might you think about it? Who creates the goals of your educational system? How do you evaluate the success in achieving them? I invite your comments. Perhaps we can begin to string together a group commentary. Send your reflections in an E-mail to tulipan@corndancer.com . I'll post them in a moderated discussion on the "Strings" page of Planet Gnosis. Why not?
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